ChoicePoint acknowledges that criminals had scammed the company out of the personal information it collects on virtually every person in the United States. They estimate that 35,000 Californians may be affected.
"California is the focus of the investigation and we don't have any evidence to indicate at this point that the situation has spread beyond California," company spokesman Chuck Jones said. "If at some point in time we get information that it's in other areas, we'll revisit the disclosure."